Throughout the history of Islam, different sects have
debated among themselves the question of whether inerrancy is necessary in
prophets and Imams or not.

The Shi'ah are unanimously agreed on the inerrancy ('ismah)
of the Imams, and they regard only the one who possesses this fundamental
quality as fit for the office of Imamate, given the sensitive and portentous
nature of the office. There is always the danger that a leader burdened with
responsibility for the manifold concerns of the ummah may knowingly
or unknowingly veer in the direction of error, in which case the honor and
values of the ummah will be at risk, with undesirable consequences
for Islamic society as a whole.

Insistence upon inerrancy as a condition for leadership is
a hallmark of the Shi'ah and a proof of the maturity of their religious
thinking and comprehensive grasp of Islam, for with great care and alertness
they have identified who the leader should be and designated inerrancy and
extensive knowledge as two of his inseparable qualities. His inerrancy and
immunity from sin are the result of his piety and self-discipline, and his
knowledge is the result of divine grace and generosity, bestowed upon him
from God's limitless ocean of wisdom. These two qualities are to be found in
combination only in the Imams of the Prophet's Household, peace and
blessings be upon him and his family. The Sunnis accept anyone as caliph or
Imam, without any precondition, and they do not insist on inerrancy and
immunity from sin.

Inerrancy is an inner faculty of self-restraint, springing
up from the great source of faith, piety, and insight; it insures man
against all kinds of sin and moral corruption. This powerful inner
attribute, derived as it is from vision of the suprasensible world and the
very essence of all creation, is so effective that it prevents man from
embarking on any kind of sin or rebellion, whether small of great, open or
hidden.

When we say that the factors leading to rebellion and sin
have no effect on such a person, we do not mean that in accordance with
divine with and decree an overwhelming force prevents him from being
attracted to sin, so that the capacity to sin and disobey is removed from
him. It is rather that the possessor of inerrancy, while having freedom to
choose and to act, is prevented by his awareness of the majesty and constant
presence of God from approaching the sphere of sin. He has had such success
in establishing the dominion of piety over his soul that he cannot even
conceive of sin in the purified sanctuary of his mind, so that the
possibility of his actually committing a sin is reduced to zero.

Generally speaking, the commission of any undesirable act
is the result of not knowing how ugly the act is and how harmful its
consequences are. Even if one is aware to a certain extent of the ugliness
of the act and his faith seeks to warn him and alert him to the danger, he
is overpowered by his desires and loses all self-control, and is drawn to
impurity and sin. It is only attention to the damaging consequences of one's
deeds, the restraining force of piety, and a powerful sense of obedience
toward divine law, that create a certain immunity in man; there will then be
no need for any other means of restraint and control. Muhammad b. Abi 'Umayr
says: "I asked Hisham, the celebrated pupil of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, peace
be upon him, whether the Imam possessed the quality of inerrancy. He
answered that he did, and I then asked him to explain inerrancy to me.

"He said: 'Several things hie at the origin of rebellion
and sin - greed, envy, lust, anger, and so forth and not one of these can
penetrate the being of the Imam. How might he be greedy, considering that he
has everything at his disposal, including even the treasury of the Muslims?
How might he be envious, for only he who is aware of a station higher than
his own can be envious, and no station higher than the Imamate can be
conceived? As for anger, it is impossible that the Imam be angered by any
worldly concern, for God has entrusted to him the implementation of His
laws. But in connection with anything touching on the hereafter, anger in
not at all undesirable. The Imam will never fall prey to lust, for he is
well aware that the pleasures and desirable things of this world are
transitory and valueless when compared to the reward that God shall bestow
on His worshippers on the Day of Resurrection." [214]

People will submit fully to the requirements of religious
duty in response to the summons of their leader and unquestioningly accept
his commands and instructions when they regard all his orders as being the
command of God, without having doubt on the matter. If someone not be
thoroughly immune to sin and error, can complete trust be placed in his
words or his orders be obeyed with devotion?

The effect of inerrancy is such that it protects man from
deception by the allurements of this world power and position, wealth and
possessions and enables him to remain steadfast in the face of all types of
distraction.

If it is not possible to trust the leader fully, the
mission of religion, which is to enable man to attain perfection, will
necessarily remain unfulfilled, for the credal structure of the religion
will be distorted by inevitable suspicions that the commands and edicts of
the leader are not based on revelation and the authentic principles of
Islam.

In addition, possession of the attribute of inerrancy
cannot be restricted to the period in which the leader of the Muslims
actually exercises the office of Imam. Throughout his life, including the
period before assuming the Imamate, his heart must have been free of all
darkness and his person of all sin. In addition to the fact that sinning
entails a loss of human dignity, people will always suspect of continuing
sinfulness and pollution one whom they know to have erred in the past,
however slightly. This suspicion will in turn rob the leadership of such a
person of all legitimacy. He will no longer be regarded as an exemplar of
piety and purity, as one endowed with unique virtues.

The bitter memory of a life spent partially in sin and
corruption can never be erased, and it will always serve as a pretext for
his opponents. They will have a powerful and credible tool for attacking him
and destroying his reputation and base of popular support. He will be unable
to defend his honor or answer his critics convincingly.

If we examine the life of the Immaculate Imams, peace be
upon them, we will see that the groups opposed to them, for all their
impudence and shamelessness, never resorted to accusations of corruption in
order to destroy their reputation. If there had been the slightest grounds
for making such an accusation, the enemies of the Imams would never have
remained silent, and the people in general would have entertained doubt
concerning the Imams' pronouncements on matters relating to revelation and
God's law. We read in the story of Musa, peace be upon him, that the Fir'awn
(Pharaoh), that cruel tyrant, unhesitatingly pointed the finger of
accusation at Musa when he confronted him, saying:

"Are you not that child that grew up under our tutelage
and spent many years with us ? Who then committed murder and rebelled
against our divinity?" Musa answered: "Yes, indeed I killed someone, but not
deliberately; my intention was to save an oppressed person, and the result
was and accidental killing. I then fled out of fear of you until my Lord
taught me knowledge and wisdom and appointed me as one of His prophets."
(26:16-19)

The first and most essential condition for the office of
Imamate is, then, inward purity and profound piety, divinely accorded
protection from sin, the possession of a lustrous heart both before and
after appointment to the rank of leader and Imam.

It is true that everyone is exposed to the possibility of
error, for the simple reason that whatever knowledge and information he has
consists of a series of concepts and images acquired by means of the senses
and other ontological faculties, none of which are infallible.

However, the Imam observes the innermost nature of the
world, including its suprasensible aspect, by means of the eye of the heart,
and this grants him access to a whole treasure house of true and certain
knowledge. His perception of reality is not dependent on his senses and is
for this reason immune against error. Fallibility arises only when a person
wishes to apply his mental concepts to the world of external reality; it
does not exist in the case of the Imam who has a direct and unmediated
perception of reality and is inwardly connected with the essence of all
being,

The comprehensive infallibility and inerrancy of the Imam,
manifested in his speech, his acts, and his thoughts, results from his
privileged knowledge of the realm of the unseen. No one can comprehend the
totality of reality by recourse to external and conventional means, and
perceive the true nature of things as they are; it is only divinely bestowed
knowledge, a mode of comprehension derived from the world of the unseen,
that can guide man infallibly to a knowledge of the reality of all things.

Piety expressing itself in deeds is far more effective
than verbal exhortation in bringing about the moral education of men and
advancing them on the path of spiritual growth. If the one who assumes the
task of the spiritual guidance of the people is lacking himself in spiritual
virtue and no sign of moral purity or practical piety can be discerned in
him, he will be totally unable to fashion upright and exalted human beings,
to exercise any positive role in their development, or to guide them toward
the general goals inculcated by religion.

It may appear that the Qur'an has attributed sins to some
of the prophets. However, the sin must be carefully examined in each case to
gain a proper understanding of the matter. The essence of true sin is to
rebel against God, to disobey His commands, to plunge into the whirlpool of
vice, all of these being acts for which a specific punishment has been
decreed; in this sense, the prophets are completely free of all sin.

Another kind of sin might be called relative, for its
commission does not entail any specific punishment Even this kind of sin is
not to be expected from those true travellers on the path of God who are in
direct communication with the source of all being and directly perceive all
hidden truths. Given the vision with which they are endowed, it is not to be
thought that they would be unaware of God for even an instant, for even such
temporary inattention would diminish their closeness to God.

Considering the fact that these favored friends of God
possess vast treasuries of faith and knowledge and have direct and precise
awareness of reality, it will be considered a sin on their part if their
orientation to God is interrupted for even a moment, even though such brief
inattention would not occasion so much as a reproach in the case of lesser
persons.

Something similar can be observed in the case of socially
prominent people who carry certain titles and ranks; people have higher
expectations of them than they do of others. Everyone is obliged to try to
fulfil the expectations that others have of him, based on his rank and
position ill society. Sobriety and dignity of speech are expected of a
learned scholar, but not of an illiterate and unlearned man.

It is true that awareness of the undesirable consequences
of sin does not in itself create immunity against sin and that its
restraining influence is neither reliable nor constant. However, a knowledge
that is deeply rooted and shows clearly all the grievous results of sin, a
perception and an awareness that permits the reality of all things to be
seen directly, in such a fashion that limitations of time and space are
transcended, and a lively fear of severe punishment by God - all these taken
together constitute a mechanism which makes the commission of a sin by a
possessor of inerrancy impossible.

No intelligent pilot will consent to take off in a plane
which he knows to be carrying a time bomb and is therefore destined to blow
up in midair. It is not, however, that he has some immunity to this suicidal
course of action built into him, involuntarily; he can freely decide whether
to take off or not. The fact that he refrains from taking off is because he
is fully aware of the disastrous consequences that would inevitably follow
if he did; it is his intelligence and awareness that guide him and reduce to
zero the possibility that he would do so.

This may serve as an illustration for the way in which
profound and immediate knowledge of the fatal consequences of an act can
provide immunity against committing that act, in the most powerful and
practical way imaginable.

The leader of religion is not subject to compulsion or
determination in his obeying divine command or adorning his soul with purity
and virtue, nor does inerrancy negate his possession of free will and
choice, in the sense of making it impossible for him to sin, without any
involvement of his ability to decide.

It is rather that the Imams' constant orientation to the
pure essence of God, their selfless struggles for His sake, their devotion,
self-sacrifice, and exertions in seeking His satisfaction, powerfully insure
these exalted personages against the commission of sin. Although- they
retain the capacity for committing evil deeds, they never pollute themselves
by committing them, and their minds never even incline in that direction.

Their comprehensive knowledge of the corruption caused by
sin, joined to their thorough awareness of the sublimity of the divine
essence, suffices fully to rein in any instinctual tendencies that might
exist in their beings and to render them steadfast on the path of purity,
piety, and virtue.

Quite apart from the Inerrant Imams, peace be upon them,
who are of course situated at exalted levels of knowledge and insight, there
are those who are not inerrant but are nonetheless sincere and ardent lovers
of God who sacrifice their whole beings for His sake, and effectively
acquire a degree of immunity from sin in their exertions to attain God's
pleasure, so that the mere thought of disobeying divine command has no
attraction for them.

It is of course possible that in their case the desired
result is attained not by breadth of understanding or completeness of
awareness, but by a strong sense of obedience to God, an innate purity of
mind which quells any tendency to sin that may exist within them and leads
them to a categorical rejection of evil.

The commission of a sin arises either from incomplete
knowledge of the ugliness of the sin, unawareness of its evil consequences,
deficiency of intelligence, or feebleness of the will when confronted with
the onslaught of passionate desire. None of these factors can obtain in the
case of one who possesses abundant spiritual knowledge, who perceives in
detailed form all the corruption sin causes, and who has subordinated his
ego to the demands of piety.

In addition, freedom from error and sin is ensured by the
protection God extends for the sake of the correct conveyance of the
message. In just the same way that God watches over the first receipt of
revelation by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family,
in order to exclude all error, divinely guaranteed inerrancy is also called
for at this stage in the process. For it is necessary that Cod's message and
commands should be conveyed to mankind without the least error or mistake,
whether intentional or accidental.

Thus the Qur'an says:

"Were it not for God's grace and mercy toward you, a
group of God's enemies would have conspired to make you deviate from the
right path. Thanks to God's kindness, it was only themselves that they
caused to wander from the truth, and they are completely unable to harm you.
God has bestowed on you this Book, wisdom and prophethood, and taught you
what you knew not, for God's kindness to you is great and His favor
unbounded." (4:111)

The propagation and implementation of God's revealed
commands is similar, in that it is a prolongation of messengerhood and the
leader and Imam to whom these tasks fall must like the Prophet be
unassailably immune to error in his words, actions, and deeds. To commit any
error in the exposition of God's commands would negate the whole purpose of
the Imamate, in just the same way that corrupt and unworthy rulers are a
threat to the authenticity of religion.

There can be absolutely no doubt that if the
responsibility for preserving and implementing the laws of religion is not
entrusted to a trustworthy and inerrant individual who heads the executive
power and applies them faithfully and integrally, the aims and purposes of
religion will suffer decay and distortion, for there is a possibility that
an unreliable and errant individual who heads the executive power may
implement the laws incorrectly or on the basis of incorrect knowledge, or
deliberately distort in conformity with his personal desires and interests.

Furthermore, there are numerous verses of the Qur'an which
call for elucidation and interpretation by the Imam; it is he who must
supply the necessary clarifications.

One in whom all human perfections have been actualized is
a complete human exemplar of the religion. He embodies the state that is the
ultimate aim of man's evolution and is always situated on the straight path
which leads in that direction. He is inherently bound to act in accordance
with the shari'ah in every period of his life and is never polluted
by sin or impurity at any point in his life. If even a brief portion of his
life were to be spent in sin, resulting in a temporary deviation from the
straight path, he could no longer be regarded as an exemplary individual, a
perfect model of religion, and the divine aim of providing men with the
means of ascent toward Him could not be realized.

It is impossible therefore to renounce the principle that
the one who expounds and implements divine law must possess comprehensive
inerrancy and freedom from sin, even before his actual assumption of the
Imamate. Were it to be otherwise, society cold never submit to the guidance
and instructions of the Imam with full confidence.